BRUSSELS: Steel bosses and unions have called on Brussels to protect the industry from the dumping of cheap foreign imports, which threaten thousands of jobs.
Steelmakers urged the European Commission to intervene as new data showed the sector’s recovery in the UK stuttered in 2014.
According to the latest figures from UK Steel, a division of EEF, the manufacturers’ organisation, output of steel in the UK in 2014 was virtually unchanged at 11.9 million tonnes, which was just 0.2 per cent higher than 2013. This followed a strong performance in 2013, when output rose by 24 per cent.
Overall, UK steel output is still 19 per cent below pre-recession levels.According to UK Steel the main cause of this disappointing result has been the growth in imports, which rose to take around 60 per cent of the market compared with 56 per cent in 2013.
Ian Rodgers, director of UK Steel, said: “Although steel demand in the UK recovered last year, estimated to be 12 per cent up on 2013, the main beneficiaries have been foreign producers. The progressive rise in the value of sterling, the improved demand in the UK compared with the stagnating Eurozone economies and, the sharp slowdown in Chinese growth, all combined to make our market a magnet for overseas steel companies with excess capacity on their hands.
